The Will to Power
by Sechrima
Summary: What if the Sandaime had ordered Jiraiya to train Naruto to his full potential in the month before the third round of the Chuunin Exams by using Shadow Clones?


Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Naruto. If I did I'd have better things to do than write fan fiction.

…

_Typical_, Naruto thought angrily while kicking at a small stone in frustration. _Of course Kakashi wants to train Sasuke and not me. It's always the same._

A day earlier Naruto had been informed by his Jounin-sensei, Hatake Kakashi, that Sasuke was to receive private training for one month until the start of the third stage of the Chuunin Exams. Naruto, on the other hand, was palmed off onto some perverted _Special_ Jounin – not even a full Jounin! Naruto didn't care that the man was considered an 'elite trainer'. It was the principle of the matter. Everyone wanted to help Sasuke, and why? So that he could go and kill his brother someday. But no one wanted to help Naruto who only had the village's best interests at heart.

_How can I become Hokage if no one helps me to get stronger? Don't they realise I just want to protect them all? Not like Sasuke, the bastard. Damn him!_

After walking to the appointed training ground where he was to meet with Ebisu, Naruto found a shady tree to lean against and closed his eyes. He still had a few minutes to wallow in self-righteous misery before his instructor was due.

_It's not as if Sasuke is so great, anyway_, he thought._ I've got heaps more chakra than him. We both learned tree walking in about the same amount of time, so his chakra control is nothing to write home about. Sure, he's got some flashy Fire jutsu, but I've got Shadow Clones, which are an awesome forbidden technique. I've got him beat in stamina and—hell, who am I kidding?—I've got a freaking Tailed Beast sealed in me! If I could somehow use _that_ power, his freaky Sharingan wouldn't help him much._

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. So just _why_ was Sasuke so popular with everyone? Even Sakura, who Naruto admired greatly, was totally infatuated with the cold bastard. Naruto knew that, superficially, Sasuke was a fairly handsome guy, but his personality wasn't exactly endearing, to say the least. Sometimes the two of them got along and were even almost friendly. But at other times all Sasuke had for Naruto was scorn or outright dismissal. Every time he showed off his Rookie of the Year skills and Uchiha bloodline, Naruto couldn't help but feel intense envy, and it didn't help that Sasuke had a tendency to gloat in a self-satisfied fashion.

Unexpectedly, Naruto sighed in acceptance. _Fine, if I'm really honest with myself I know why he gets all the attention. He acts like a shinobi should. Like the very best shinobi. He's serious, cold, confident, organised, intelligent, hard working, perceptive, and eager to get stronger. And what do others see in me by comparison? A loudmouth, a hothead, a prankster… basically a knuckleheaded, dead-last liability. I think Kakashi and even Sasuke know there's more to me than that, but they still don't take me seriously enough…_

Staring at the ground dejectedly, Naruto failed to notice the approach of a tall man with spiky white hair tied back into a ponytail, two shoulder-length bangs framing the sides of his face. Over his forehead was a horned plate marked with the kanji for 'Oil'. He was wearing mesh armour under a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, themselves under a red cloak. Only as the man drew very near did Naruto hear the rough clacking of wooden sandals on the rocky ground.

_Huh? This isn't Ebisu…_

"You Uzumaki?" the stranger asked gruffly, sizing Naruto up with a disinterested, bored look.

Unable to sum up his usual optimistic persona, Naruto merely nodded in affirmation while quirking an eyebrow in question.

"Been a change of plans, order of the Hokage. You'll be training with me for this month," the tall man said.

"Uh, and who _are_ you exactly?"

At this the man's chest puffed up self-importantly and he jutted his chin out. "I am the great Jiraiya, Toad Sage of the Sannin and purveyor of bestselling, award-winning literature!" he announced loudly, much to Naruto's annoyance.

"Uh, whatever you say. Look, don't take this the wrong way or nothin', but you seem like a bit of an idiot and anyway, I don't think you really want to be here either, old man. So I'm just going to train on my own as best I can. You really don't need to hang around." This said, Naruto pushed himself off the tree and began walking away with his hands in his pockets, face titled earthward.

The tall man, Jiraiya, cleared his throat loudly, which prompted Naruto to glance back at him. In the man's right hand a ball of bright blue and white chakra was swirling into existence. The velocity of its rotation was astounding to Naruto, who'd never seen anything like it before.

"Rasengan!" Jiraiya named the technique while slamming it forcefully into the tree against which Naruto had been leaning only seconds ago. The tree splintered on impact, splitting suddenly where the 'Rasengan' struck. A second later and the upper regions of the tree were collapsing to the earth with a loud crash.

"Or if that's not enough for you," Jiraiya began while forming hand seals so fast that Naruto couldn't even begin to figure out which seals were even being used.

"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!" Half a moment later, the fallen branches of the unfortunate tree were alight in a furious blaze, hellish light and intense heat radiating from the flames.

Staggering back from the biting heat, Naruto turned to Jiraiya with his eyes open wide in shock, a feeling of excitement beginning to jolt his body.

"Teach me!" the Genin cried, desperation clear in his voice.

Smirking, Jiraiya gave a curt nod in return. "Show some respect to your elders next time, brat."

Naruto scowled but nodded in understanding anyway.

"So, Jiraiya-sensei! What will you teach me? I wanna learn that wicked fire jutsu! Or the other one, that was pretty cool, too! Wait, do you know any others?"

Chuckling, Jiraiya held up a hand. "Slow down, brat. I've still got to figure out what I'll teach you. First I've got some questions for you."

After walking away from the burning tree Jiraiya and Naruto sat down cross-legged on the grass facing each other.

"I already know what unflattering things most of your academy instructors had to say about you—" Jiraiya began, earning an intense frown from the young blond. "—but I've also read your Jounin-sensei's mission reports, which I think are much closer to reality. Finally, I watched some video footage of how you handled that match against the Inuzuka brat, and although it's pretty miniscule right now, there _is_ some potential deep, deep, _deep_ down inside of you, kid."

Naruto was torn between embarrassment, anger, and an eagerness to learn from this obviously powerful shinobi.

"But as I was saying, I've got some questions. What's your affinity?"

Naruto stared back uncomprehendingly.

"Oh for Kami's sake, brat. Your elemental affinity. Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning, or Wind. Which is it?"

Naruto could only shrug his shoulders, not knowing at all what the man was talking about.

Growling impatiently, Jiraiya began looking in some concealed pockets in his cloak for something. Finally he withdrew a small scroll, unrolled it, and then placed his fingers upon it, channelling chakra into the odd array of squiggly geometric lines and calligraphic kanji. Moments later a puff of smoke appeared out of nowhere. When it cleared Naruto saw that his new sensei had summoned some blank pieces of paper.

"Here," said Jiraiya while handing Naruto one. "Channel some chakra into that and we'll see what affinity you have."

After doing as he was told and watching the paper split cleanly down the middle, Naruto discovered that he had a 'Wind affinity', whatever that meant. Next Jiraiya handed him another piece of paper, insisting that he repeat the process, but this time more chakra would be needed.

"Interesting," Jiraiya commented, watching as the piece of paper simultaneously became wet and started to smoke, eventually degenerating into pulpy bits of hot, wet ash. "But not altogether unexpected. Well, Naruto, congratulations, you have a Wind affinity, which is the rarest of all and quite powerful. In addition to that, you have two secondary affinities. You'll find it much easier to master Wind nature transformation, but with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, it's possible you could get pretty good at Water and Fire, too."

Still completely ignorant of the subject matter, Naruto shook his head in irritation.

"Jiraiya-sensei, I still don't know what you're even talking about. What is an affinity? What are all these elements? And what the _hell_ is nature transformation?"

"Troublesome brat," Jiraiya mumbled while shaking his head. "Naruto, listen up because I'm only going to say this once. There are five basic elemental types into which chakra can be transformed from its neutral state. The neutral state, by the way, is a harmonious balance of spiritual and physical energies or Yin and Yang. These five types are, in order of most to least common: Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning, and Wind. Everyone has an affinity for one or more of these elements. And most people have one or two secondary affinities, sometimes even more. If you've got an affinity for an element, that means it will come more naturally to you to transform your chakra into that nature. If you've got a secondary affinity, it won't come easily but it will eventually come with a bit of dedicated hard work. And if you've got no affinity at all, well, it's extremely difficult to transform your chakra into that elemental nature. So what this all boils down to is that I'm going to teach you some Wind jutsu, eventually, probably, maybe – I don't have a Wind affinity but I'll see what I can organise. Anyway, first you'll have to master Wind nature transformation. And believe me, you're not quite ready for that yet."

Squinting in concentration, Naruto did his very best to commit all of the information to his long-term memory. It sounded pretty important.

"It looks to me like you need some practice at using your brain, kid," Jiraiya said, not impressed by Naruto's 'thinking' facial expression, which looked like he had a bad migraine.

"Hey!" Naruto protested loudly. "I think I get it. So what should I start with, then, if not this affinity stuff?"

Jiraiya pondered this for a moment before a rather obvious answer came to him. "Hokage-sama said that you know the Shadow Clone Technique, yeah?"

Naruto nodded and waited, until he realised Jiraiya was waiting for a demonstration. After forming the requisite hand seals, a group of fourteen Shadow Clones appeared behind Naruto in a burst of thick, white smoke. Jiraiya took the sight in for a moment and then gave a nod of approval.

"Your hand seals are slow and clumsy. The clones don't have a very good range of materialisation and you're generating way too much smoke and commotion. But fourteen clones is a good start. Is that your limit?"

Naruto began to laugh. "No way! I can make hundreds of these guys at a time, if I have to."

Jiraiya deadpanned, having to rethink his opinion of the blond Genin for a moment. "Okay, you really _do_ have insane chakra reserves. That's excellent; we can definitely work with this. Have you already realised the training benefits of Shadow Clones?" the Toad Sage asked eagerly.

This time Naruto deadpanned. "Uh, training benefits?"

Palming his face, Jiraiya mumbled something unflattering about a lazy, silver-haired, one-eyed Jounin.

"Naruto, send a Shadow Clone over there behind that rock and have him take a look at it."

Naruto did so with a questioning frown on his face. Once the clone had reached its destination, Jiraiya picked up a small stone from the ground and pegged it at the Shadow Clone, dispelling it instantly.

"Hey! That hurt! Why'd you do that?" Naruto complained, until suddenly a confused expression crossed his face.

"Do you remember looking at the far side of that rock, brat?"

Naruto nodded slowly. "What does this mean?" he asked.

"It means, you dim-wit, that you will remember everything your clones have seen or done before being dispersed. With your massive chakra reserves and Shadow Clones, we can put you through one hell of a training programme. I'm actually pretty excited to test this method out. I doubt anyone else has ever used it on quite as big a scale as you'll be able to, kid," Jiraiya explained with an eager grin.

Naruto also began to smile broadly, realising that this, at long last, was his chance to grow truly strong. Stronger than Sasuke! With this training he'd be a Chuunin in no time, and one step closer to becoming the next Hokage.

"Okay," Naruto said, resuming his 'thinking' expression. "So I can make a bunch of Shadow Clones and get them to train, and when I disperse them it'll be like I did all the training myself. So I save _a lot_ of time. But what should my clones be learning? And can they get physically stronger, too, or just learn stuff?"

"Good questions," Jiraiya said, a little surprised. "First of all, no, your clones can't make you physically tougher or faster. They can learn technique, theory, chakra control, even jutsu, but if you want to get stronger you'll need to do a lot of exercise. Unfortunately we've only got a month to train and I doubt you could pack on much muscle in that time. You'd only wear yourself out doing physical conditioning."

Naruto jumped to his feet and shook his head adamantly. "No way, sensei! I never wear myself out. There's no one in Konoha who can train for as long or as hard as me!"

At this declaration Jiraiya looked Naruto over contemplatively. "That's most likely to do with the fox's chakra healing your muscles at an accelerated rate…" _Not to mention a certain Uzumaki bloodline_, he added wordlessly.

"Oh," Naruto responded, shoulders slumping immediately. He hated to be reminded of the damn fox.

"Actually, brat, this could definitely work in our favour. Do you know how muscles become stronger?"

"Um, I guess so…"

"Ugh, what did you actually learn at the Academy? It's like this: when you exercise hard, your muscle fibres tear, which is why most people have muscle pain and fatigue the next day. But as your muscles heal themselves, so long as you give them plenty of protein, they grow back bigger, stronger, and more efficient. This is the body's automatic reaction to stress and resistance – challenging yourself makes you stronger. Understand?"

Naruto nodded, pretty confident he could comprehend the lesson.

"Right, now because you heal at an accelerated rate thanks to the fox's chakra, you should also be able to exercise physically at a much increased frequency. Normal people need at least a day or two to recover from a tough exercise session, but you probably only need an hour or so at most. So instead of doing one bout of exercise per couple of days, you could work out up to ten times a day and get all the natural benefits out of it. Most people could work out between fifteen to twenty times in one month. You could maybe handle up to two hundred and fifty workouts in the same time period." This realisation was even making Jiraiya look stunned, as he'd never considered this advantage of the fox's chakra and Uzumaki bloodline before.

Naruto was floored. He'd always trained pretty hard, but rarely rested his muscles during the day, so he probably missed out on a lot of opportunities to get stronger and faster. Once again the lack of proper guidance from senior shinobi had held Naruto back from his full potential.

"Okay, enough talk. It's time to knuckle down," Jiraiya announced while jumping to a standing position. "First of all I want you to make about one hundred and fifty Shadow Clones."

Naruto promptly performed the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and awaited his sensei's next command.

"Impressive work, brat. Now, we're going to divide these clones into groups and work on some of the basics first."

Before Naruto could complain that he wanted to learn some cool jutsu, Jiraiya pre-empted him. "You can't learn any advanced jutsu yet because your chakra control is atrocious. Furthermore, you need to learn how to concentrate and use your brain. I won't train an idiot, you understand?"

Grudgingly, Naruto nodded. He wasn't the idiot that everyone saw when they looked at him and now it was time to prove it.

"Anyway, you yourself will start doing physical exercise while your clones work on meditation, concentration exercises, and chakra control."

"Right, so what should I be doing exactly? Push-ups and sit-ups?"

Jiraiya grunted, not amused. "First of all, what do you want to achieve in the Chuunin Exams, besides a promotion?"

Naruto paused a moment to consider this. His long-term goal was to become Hokage, but what did he want to accomplish in the short-term? When he really thought about it, he wanted Sasuke to acknowledge him as an equal. But the Uchiha respected only strength. If Naruto wanted his acknowledgement, he would have to defeat him.

"Well, I'd like to win the Chuunin Exams, but what's even more important is that I beat my teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. He'll never respect me if he thinks I'm weaker than him."

"Okay, so what strengths does this Sasuke have?" Jiraiya asked.

"Well, he has the Sharingan, so he can copy techniques, see through genjutsu, and predict my movements perfectly, which makes it almost impossible to hit him in taijutsu. Other than that, he's pretty good with tools, especially shuriken and wires, and he can do this cool Great Fireball Technique. Oh, and he's really good at taijutsu, especially since he copied some of Lee-san's fighting style. Everyone says he's a genius, too, so I suppose he must be pretty clever."

"Huh, sounds like a pretty good ninja for his age. But nothing we can't handle with a little bit of training," Jiraiya said, nonplussed. "If you want to beat a Sharingan user, you need to develop intense speed and agility. You've got to move so fast that the Sharingan's phenomenal ability to track movement won't help, because you're moving faster than they can physically respond to. You also need explosive strength, so that your movements are less predictable and harder to counter. We're going to work on these qualities for the rest of the month. If you can handle it I want you to do ten workouts per day with a short rest in-between each one. Tomorrow I'll bring some protein-rich food pills, which will help you build muscle quickly. I'll also bring some weighted bracelets and anklets, which will increase the overall resistance on your body."

Naruto was almost jumping for joy, excited beyond words at his new training plan. Soon he would be fast enough to take on Sasuke even with his Sharingan active!

Jiraiya proceeded to show Naruto the exercises he would be doing everyday. He explained that, to increase one's running speed, there were three areas that needed one's focus. These were stride frequency, or the number of strides a person takes in a set amount of time, then stride length, which was the measured distance of each stride taken, and finally anaerobic endurance, which was the body's ability to sustain maximum effort for an extended time frame. Naruto already excelled at the latter, which meant he would have to focus on the first two qualities.

Thus Naruto spent his first day of training under Jiraiya pushing his body to its limits. His exercises were geared toward the development of fast-twitch muscles and sudden, explosive power. Jiraiya insisted that he practice sprinting, bounding, high jumps, tuck jumps, skipping, and weave in/weave outs. Sometimes the Toad Sage had Naruto perform ladder drills for agility, foot speed, and coordination. He would have to lay a long ladder flat on the ground, and then sprint over it lengthwise, his feet moving as quickly as possible between each rung of the ladder. The faster and better coordinated Naruto became, the more complicated footwork he was required to perform. Of course on the first day he didn't become very proficient at this exercise, but Jiraiya promised him that in time he would become extraordinarily fast if he kept pushing himself.

Meanwhile Naruto's Shadow Clones were also busy. Jiraiya had divided the mass of one hundred and fifty corporeal clones into several groups. One group was told to practice meditation, but only after Jiraiya had demonstrated and explained at some length that meditation required an empty, tranquil mind and utter stillness. None of Naruto's Shadow Clones were particularly good at shutting up and holding still, but a few colourful threats from Jiraiya were enough to convince most of them to at least give meditation a try.

A second group of clones were sent to a nearby stream and told to practice water walking, which Jiraiya again demonstrated. This exercise was simply a more challenging version of tree walking, which Naruto had already mastered. It took his clones the better part of the day to work it out and become adept at water walking, but by sunset they were able to run on the water's surface and even practice a taijutsu kata without falling in. At first when Jiraiya had seen them practicing taijutsu moves he had been somewhat impressed by their ambitiousness, until he saw just how sloppy Naruto's taijutsu really was. He'd then demonstrated some basic techniques of Myoubokuzan Frog Kata, which the clones were eager to try for themselves and had since been repeating tirelessly.

A third group of clones were given leaves and told to channel their chakra into them and attempt to cut the leaves in half. This task was enormously difficult for the clones who barely managed to put even a nick in the leaves after hours of attempting the exercise. That they had even managed a small nick, Jiraiya assured them, was an impressive accomplishment and unexpected from Naruto. After all this _was_ the first step in Wind nature transformation.

Twice throughout the day, Jiraiya made Naruto disperse his clones in small groups and then recreate them all anew. This was because he wanted them to periodically share their knowledge communally, as it would help them in each of their respective exercises.

In order to improve Naruto's concentration, Jiraiya gave all of his clones, in every group, a leaf to put on their foreheads. Their instructions were to use their chakra to stick the leaves to their foreheads at all times, never letting up for an instant. This meant that a part of their consciousness would have to be active all day and focusing on holding the leaves with chakra even while performing other, difficult exercises. Jiraiya assured Naruto that, by the end of his training, his mind would be as sharp as a shuriken, not to mention the inevitable increase in chakra control such an exercise would afford.

After many hours of excruciating training, Naruto's first day of apprenticeship under Jiraiya drew to a close.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Disperse your clones and go home. I'll see you here again tomorrow morning, two hours earlier than today. And now I'm off to the hot springs to do some important research while there's still enough light," the Toad Sage said while walking off, a perverted grin on his face.

Not knowing what the old guy was talking about, Naruto shook his head and put it out of mind. He was sore, tired, and had a lot to think about.

On his way back home Naruto passed a rocky training ground where he spotted Kakashi and Sasuke. Sasuke was sitting on the ground, apparently exhausted, while Kakashi was standing over him with his face buried in a book. No longer furious with his sensei since he now had his own powerful teacher, Naruto changed course and entered the training ground. A few moments later Sasuke saw him and scowled.

"What do you want, Naruto? Some of us are busy training," he snapped grumpily.

Naruto laughed and scratched behind his head. "Yeah, I've been training all day, too. I've got a really strong sensei, too."

Sasuke scoffed at this, but Kakashi managed to pull his head out of his book and ask, "Do you mean Ebisu-san?"

Naruto shook his head, frowning. "Of course not. I already beat that pervert a while ago. My new sensei is called Jiraiya. He's a Toad Sage, whatever that means. The old man sent him to teach me some awesome jutsu."

Kakashi's single visible eye widened and he almost dropped his book. "J-Jiraiya of the Sannin?"

Naruto nodded, grinning. "Yep! He told me this trick about Shadow Clones. Apparently I remember everything they do, so I can use them to speed up my training. I've been working hard all day and I'm going to keep training all month so that I can beat you into the ground, Sasuke!" Naruto declared boldly, pointing at his sitting rival.

Sasuke's scowl was growing darker by the second. "You mean to tell me you're getting personal training from a member of the Sannin?"

"Are you deaf? That's what I said." _Ah, so this is what gloating feels like_, Naruto thought, his grin looking particularly smug.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke began in an ominous tone. "Chidori isn't enough. I want to learn how to make Shadow Clones, and more. There's no way I'm going to let the dead-last surpass me!"

Kakashi sighed. This whole affair was troublesome. He knew it must have seemed like a blow off to Naruto when he decided to concentrate on Sasuke, but there wasn't really much of a choice. Sasuke was up against a dangerous opponent in his first match. He needed to learn Chidori so that he could end the match quickly without needing to draw on the power of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal. Also, Kakashi knew that if Sasuke didn't get stronger soon, he would lose faith in Konoha and maybe run to Orochimaru. It was important to convince him that Konoha could make him strong enough to eventually face Itachi.

"Alright, Sasuke. I'll teach you the Shadow Clone Technique and… how would you like to learn kenjutsu? I can call in some favours with some other Jounin and get them to help with your training."

Sasuke's scowl turned into a devious smirk while Naruto's grin became a scandalised expression of shock.

"Kakashi-sensei! You can't teach him Shadow Clone, that's my technique! He already has enough!" the blond complained.

"Maa. Maa. Naruto, calm down. The Shadow Clone Technique doesn't belong to you, you know. I forgot it can be used to help with training, so thanks for reminding me. You both look pretty tired so you should go home and rest. Sasuke, you did well today. Keep it up," the silver-haired Jounin said.

"But Kakashi-senseeiii—" Naruto whined, too late as Kakashi used the Body Flicker Technique to disappear in a whirl of leaves.

"Wha—bastard!"

Sasuke only laughed at Naruto's outraged expression. "Get over it, dobe. You'll never catch up to me now."

"Just you wait, Sasuke. I promise I'll beat you in the Chuunin Exams. And I never break a promise, that's my ninja way," Naruto swore, fists clenched in anger.

"Hn. Whatever, dobe. I doubt you'll even get past the Hyuuga. I hear he's almost as much of a genius as I am. You don't stand a chance."

Naruto didn't know why exactly—maybe it was the constant leaf concentration and meditation he'd done that day—but suddenly his mind shifted. It became cold, silent, and hard.

"You better train until you can't even stand, Uchiha. Because when I face you in the finals I'll bring everything I've got. I won't be holding back," he warned, blue eyes flashing red for an instant.

Without his Sharingan on, Sasuke thought that maybe he'd imagined the odd discoloration of his teammate's eyes. Nevermind.

"Listen, _Uzumaki_, you're a dead-last. A ninja wannabe. You might have got a bit stronger riding on my coattails but if I end up fighting you in the Exams, I won't just beat you – I'll humiliate you in front of all of Konoha. Now get out of my training ground."

Cold fury washed through Naruto as he turned about and walked out of the rocky field, an iron intent building in his mind. In one month Uchiha Sasuke was going _down_.


End file.
